Joseph Rowe

It’s Official

Joseph — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:21:13 +0000

It may not seem like much, but I received an email this morning that excited me. My short story,”The Blueprint” has been selected for publication in the May issue of the Dallas Writers Journal. It’s a small publication and I’ll be lucky if a few hundred people see it, but I will be paid the grand sum of ten dollars and that makes me a published author.

It’s the only thing I’ve ever submitted anywhere, so I’m pretty proud that the selection panel picked it. I plan to take half my earnings and buy a $4.95 El Fenix Wednesday special enchilada lunch to celebrate.

What’s Your Brain Look Like?

Joseph — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:18:59 +0000

What does your brain look like?

There is s new fived year project underway to map the neural pathways of the human brain funded by the National Institutes of Health. They have invented a new type of scanner to do this. They just got it last September, but they have already made some amazing discoveries. Up to now, it looked like the pathways of our brains were about as organized as a plate of spaghetti. Take a look at this image.

Not only is it organized, ity forms a three dimensional matrix kind of like a street map on steroids. There are literally billions of connections with well defined and organized paths. When I saw this photo, it looked familiar. It brought to mind the circuit boards I had seen inside of some of the very earliest computers when I was in college.

Now, take a look at this one.

This is the wire wrapped circuit of a home brew computer built recently by an experimenter. It has 1296 wires and can play chess. Look familiar? The big difference is scale. This is a two dimensional circuit with wires easily seen by the naked eye. Our brains are three dimensional with microscopic sized connections and they weigh several pounds. 1296 connections versus billions.

This brought to mind some questions like:

“If my brain is that powerful, why can’t I hit the pigs in Angry Birds?”
“Is the problem that my thoughts get lost in that maze? Should I buy a GPS?”
“Is everyone’s map a little different? Does mine have an excess of dead end streets?”
“Is the problem that it’s rush hour and everything is gridlocked or is it three AM and there are only two cars on the road in my brain?

I guess I’ll have to wait while they perfect this machine to see what my brain looks like. Some days, it seems to be just a blank sheet of paper. What do you think yours looks like. I’m anxious to hear.

New and Improved!

Joseph — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:09:48 +0000

As you can see, I’m rebuilding my website in the form of a blog. A lot has happened in the last two years. I discovered that I still had a lot to learn about writing after finishing my memoirs. “Rolling Uphill.” I decided to wait to publish it until my writing skills could make it a memorable read. I’ve been attending classes, workshops and critique sessions ever since. I will always have more to learn, but I am now ready to turn my creations lose on the world.

I’m currently in the midst of a complete rewrite of “Rolling Uphill” and simultaneously writing “SHAFT.” It is a thriller about some disenchanted “Occupy Wall Street” protesters who decide to use computers to steal trllions of dollars from the accounts of tax evaders in offshore accounts and give it to ordinary people. A team led by a disabled network security consultant attempts to stop them while Chinese agents want them to succeed.

My plan is to have both these books published in the second quarter of 2012. They will initially be available as eBooks with paperbacks to follow. Stay tuned for updates and thanks for your patience.